In 2005 PT Badak NGL launched a mutual agreement on termination program. Those who wants to leave the company were offered with a good amount of incentives. I wanted to participate in the program, but unfortunately my application to several oil and gas companies did not get any answer at the dead line given by the company.
In April 2006, to my surprise, I got the offer from BP Tangguh LNG for the position of an Operations Manager. Mr. Andrew Collins who interviewed me had agreed to hire me. First I was reluctant since it would mean I should given up a significant amount of pension mony, but when my friend Holand called me I finally agreed to join after BP Tangguh LNG agreed to give some sign-on bonus to help me moving without loosing too much.
I started my career at BP Tangguh LNG in August 2006. I met Irwan which was my counter part who already joined BP Tangguh LNG two months earlier. Together we are setting-up the operation organization and hiring the team from LNG plants in Indonesia as well as Middle East. We also hire people from petrochemical plants.
BP Tangguh LNG is the third LNG plant in Indonesia located at Bintuni Bay, West Papua. The plant was at site preparation stage when I joined. I started almost from scratch in developing Operation team. It was a great challenge for me which forced me to put all my knowledge and my 22 years experience working at Badak LNG Plant. I have the privilege to set-up the operation team. The greatest challenge was getting LNG experience operators into the team. Working in rotational roster also increased the number of people we need in operation. Also how to ensure the operators would up hold to the same standard that BP is setting.
To achieve this, we trained new operators for 2 years at Badak LNG plant. We also hired many Supervisors and Junior Supervisors from Badak LNG plant who wanted an early retirement and moved to Jakarta or Java to start a new life. Fortunately, PT Badak NGL policy allows their employee to get early retirement after they reached 46 years and minimum of 15 years of service. Other sources of experienced LNG operators are from Middle East. We also hired experienced operators from Petrochemicals. Of course we cannot fulfill all the needs for commissioning and start-up, therefore we also hired as temporary several retired personnel from Badak and Arun LNG plants.